Dov Frohman, founder of Intel Israel, says that contrary to much popular thinking on leadership, it’s a skill that can’t be taught. But it can be learned. In this book, he presents a method of living and working which can facilitate the learning of leadership. His method is about going against the current, continuously fighting conventional wisdom, and embracing the unexpected. It’s also about trusting oneself, valuing intuition, principles and imagination over hard skills and analysis. Frohman combines his counterintuitive ideas with experiences from his own background (from escaping the Nazis as a child to becoming a leading innovator in the semiconductor industry) to show how readers can build their own leadership abilities: The only real way to become a leader is to “learn by doing” The chief role of a leader is to ensure the survival of an organization, rather than focusing on “success” A leader can only continue to learn and grow through conflict and confrontation A leader must learn to leverage random opportunities thrown up by the turbulence of the economy, since the future can’t be foreseen Instinct and the ability to daydream are more important than hard management skills A leader’s values and personality are the only sure source of stability in a world of continuous change
Book Details:
- Author: Dov Frohman
- ISBN: 9780470267684
- Year Published: 2008
- Pages: 200
- BISAC: BUS071000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Leadership
About the Book and Topic:
Dov Frohman, founder of Intel Israel, says that contrary to much popular thinking on leadership, it’s a skill that can’t be taught. But it can be learned. In this book, he presents a method of living and working which can facilitate the learning of leadership. His method is about going against the current, continuously fighting conventional wisdom, and embracing the unexpected. It’s also about trusting oneself, valuing intuition, principles and imagination over hard skills and analysis. Frohman combines his counterintuitive ideas with experiences from his own background (from escaping the Nazis as a child to becoming a leading innovator in the semiconductor industry) to show how readers can build their own leadership abilities: The only real way to become a leader is to “learn by doing” The chief role of a leader is to ensure the survival of an organization, rather than focusing on “success” A leader can only continue to learn and grow through conflict and confrontation A leader must learn to leverage random opportunities thrown up by the turbulence of the economy, since the future can’t be foreseen Instinct and the ability to daydream are more important than hard management skills A leader’s values and personality are the only sure source of stability in a world of continuous change
PUBLICIST: The author is hiring his own publicist/PR group and will be available in the US the first four months after publication to launch the review campaign and arrange speaking engagements. ENDORSERS include: Andy Grove and Craig Barrett from Intel; potential endorser John Seeley Brown of Xerox. CONTRARIAN and ORIGINAL CONTENT: The book is a great read, with original and inspiring stories in a vein that has proven to work for leadership authors (e.g. Bill George’s Authentic Leadership and Steven Sample’s Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership). For example, Frohman got rid of all secretaries to remove the buffers between managers; hired “generalists” instead of technology wizards, in an industry predicated on technological knowledge; and most infamously, kept Intel open during missile attacks of the first Gulf War. INTEL INVOLVEMENT: Internal promotion to Intel worldwide, possible event(s) at launch. CONFIRMED HBR ARTICLE: Harvard Business Review (circ. 200,000) article scheduled to run just before publication of the book.
About the Author
Dov Frohman is the founder and former general manager of Intel Israel and widely respected as a leader and innovator in the worldwide technology/semiconductor industry. Born in 1939 to Polish Jewish parents living in Holland, he survived the death of his parents during WWII through the heroic efforts of a Dutch family that hid him from the Nazis. He trained at The Technion in Haifa, Israel, and received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. A founding employee of the Intel Corporation, he was present at the creation of Silicon Valley and invented the EPROM, the first reprogrammable computer chip, for which he won numerous awards. He helped found and build Intel Israel into a the flagship of the Intel Corporation and the key cornerstone of the Israeli high-tech economy. He became famous for his leadership style – taking hard stands and risks, such as being one of the only businesses to stay open while scuds from Iraq fell around Jerusalem during the first Gulf War. He splits his time between Israel, Italy and the U.S. Robert Howard is an established author and former senior editor of the Harvard Business Review. Previously, he was director of idea development at The Boston Consulting Group. His writing on work, technology, and management has appeared in a number of national publications including the Harvard Business Review, MITs Technology Review, the New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic.